THE BREAKING OF A MILITANT PUBLIC-SECTOR SOCIAL-WORKERS UNION - THE PUBLIC-ASSISTANCE CHAPTER OF THE UNITED-PUBLIC-WORKERS LOCAL 2, 1950-1951

Beginning in January 1951, the public assistance chapter of the United Public Workers (UPW) Local 2, the militant union of Chicago social wo rkers at the Department of Public Aid, was subjected to vigorous attac ks from the Department of Public Aid administration, the Illinois stat e government, and the American Legion for being allegedly led and cont rolled by the American Communist Party. These attacks occurred at the time when Local 2 was becoming increasingly involved in actively defen ding and organizing public aid recipients against relief cuts engineer ed by the state government. Although there was no concrete evidence th at Local 2 was controlled or dominated by the Communist Party, the pot ential formation of a powerful coalition between Local 2 members and p ublic aid recipients led the Department of Public Aid to withdraw reco gnition from the local union in September 1951.